What You Might Think Happens When Two People With Synesthesia Meet: Oh Neat! We Have The Same Weird Brain

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To lovely humans who were excluded from invitations, left behind when they tied their shoes, forced to walk in the grass when the sidewalk was full, spoken over when you tried to contribute, whispered about or laughed at, given side-eye when you tried to fit in…. you are so worthy of love.

About Synesthesia

For anybody who wants to know more or who has just started learning!

What is synesthesia?

Synesthesia is a condition in which stimulation of one sense activates a response in another sense. In simpler terms, it basically means that two or more senses can be connected, leading a synesthete (person with synesthesia) to associate senses that others probably don't associate!

As an example: my synesthesia connects my sense of hearing to my sense of sight. Whenever I listen to music, I associate colors and images with the sounds I'm hearing.

Estimates on how much of the population has synesthesia varies - as few as 1% or as many as 10% of the global population could have synesthesia. We just don't know.

What kinds of synesthesia are there?

Here are some (but certainly not all) types of synesthesia.

Grapheme-Color Synesthesia: individuals with this type of synesthesia associate colors (and sometimes textures!) with written symbols, such as letters and numbers. A lot of grapheme-color synesthetes, for example, associate the letters of the Roman alphabet with different colors! (Note that such synesthetes can also associate the same colors with different letters/numbers/symbols. It varies wildly from person to person!)

Chromesthesia: this type of synesthete associates sounds with colors and/or images (or abstract visualizations). Some chromesthetes may see colors when they listen to music, and the colors depend on the varying aspects of the music they listen to. Some see moving images or patterns when listening to music as well. Still others may associate colors and/or images when hearing everyday sounds, such as people's voices or the creaking of a staircase! This type of synesthesia can often result in hearing sensitivity for those who have it - Misophonia is thought to potentially be connected to synesthesia.

Spatial-Sequence Synesthesia: this type of synesthesia affects how people see certain sequences, such sequences being numbers, the alphabet, the months of the year, the days of the week, a timeline, etcetera. Spatial sequence synesthetes see or imagine these sequences in the physical space surrounding them; as an example, one might see the months of the year as a spiral that surrounds their body, or physically picture the number line when doing math (this specifically is also known as Number Form Synesthesia). Again, it all depends on the person!

Auditory-Tactile Synesthesia: with this type, the synesthete experiences physical sensations in their body when certain sounds are heard. These sounds could be music and/or everyday sounds. As an example, an auditory-tactile synesthete may experience fluttering sensations on their scalp when listening to music, or they may feel as if they are being touched when surrounded by sounds in public locations.

Ordinal Linguistic Personification: this type of synesthete will associate ordered sequences (numbers, letters, months, etc) with genders and/or personalities. For instance, they might think of the number 2 as a short-tempered man, or otherwise associate letters and numbers with human traits!

Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia: with this type of synesthesia, one experiences tastes in association with certain words. For example, this kind of synesthete might experience the word "experience" as lemon flavored, and otherwise associate tastes with specific words! (Note that the experienced tastes don't always correspond to tastes that exist in real life. A word might have a distinct taste, but a taste that cannot necessarily be connected to any food or other taste that actually exists.)

Mirror-Touch Synesthesia: synesthetes with this type of synesthesia will physically feel the touches that they witness other people experiencing. A mirror-touch synesthete may see someone getting tapped on the shoulder, for example, and feel that shoulder-tap themself, even though no one has physically touched them. (This has the potential to be painful, however, if the synesthete witnesses the physical pain of another person.)

Awesome, right? In many cases, yes! Having synesthesia provides a unique and often beautiful experience to the synesthete. However, there can be negative effects. A grapheme-color synesthete may have trouble focusing on reading due to the varied coloration of the letters they see, or have trouble with numbers for the same reason. A chromesthete may experience sensory overload much faster due to intense visualization of sound. While synesthesia can be very positive, it's also important to recognize that it can be disadvantageous in certain situations.

Now, onto the last section:

Associative Vs. Projective Synesthesia

In general, there are two ways to experience synesthesia.

Projective Synesthesia: this is probably the most well-known conception of synesthesia. Projective synesthetes physically experience their synesthesic associations. For instance, a projective grapheme-color synesthete will actually see the alphabet with the colors that they associate with letters!

Associative Synesthesia: but projective synesthesia isn't the only way of having synesthesia. Associative synesthetes intrinsically know that their associations exist, but they do not physically experience them. A grapheme-color synesthete may know that the letter E is yellow, but they will not actually see the letter E as yellow. An associative chromesthete may know that a certain song is purple, but they will not physically see purple; they will simply have the instant and internal knowledge that the song is purple.

This concludes my synesthesia post! I hope it's helpful to anyone who reads it, and I hope that you, dear reader, have an excellent day / night / whatever time it may be.

‘ [...] It is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational. ’

Donna Tartt,The Secret History (1992).

And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.

“So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul, Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.”

—

Greek goddesses 🌟